This Sunday (13th July 2014) TAPMI played host to its very own alumnus from the batch of 2007 – Mr. Vipul Mahajan, Head Analytics – Retail & SME Banking, Yes Bank. Recalling his days at TAPMI, Mr. Mahajan spoke about how the campus had come a long way in terms of facilities and the breadth of knowledge among students.

The session kicked off with Mr. Mahajan soliciting real life examples of analytics from the audience. Through live examples, he conveyed to the students what an Analysts life is like and more importantly stressed on the need for an analyst to be familiar with his/her data. Mr.Mahajan said he believed it is imperative for someone looking at a career in Analytics to be well versed with data and have the appetite for statistics and mathematics.

While the intuitive meaning of analytics points to logic, he said, equally important is how findings and analysis is communicated to the concerned audience. Communication is only effective if it involves putting across the analysis to a layman.

Talking about the process flow involved in an analytics project, that involved Problem, Data, Science, Solution and Presentation in that order, Mr Mahajan emphasized that none is more important than the other and that the time required for one is often much different than that required for the other.

Further, Mr Mahajan shared a less known yet very significant application of analytics in the area of Clinical trials. Data captured in the process can be used to speed up and enhance the trials, he mentioned.

The audience was eager to know about the career progression associated with the Analytics domain. While enlightening them on this matter, Mr.Mahajan busted many myths and wrong perceptions in their minds. He also shared his own career path so far and quoted a couple of interesting anecdotes from his days as a fresh B-school graduate.

The session concluded with Mr. Mahajan walking the students through a simplified simulation of a real life analytics project on bank loan defaults, which the students seemed to grasp really well while also getting a feel of the industrial context of analytics.

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